


My Hands Are Cold

by Hawke



Series: Do You Mind? (A Soul-Mate Academy AU) [2]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Author doesnt know how snow works, Christmas fic, Explicit Sexual Content, LGBTQIA+, M/M, Pining, Sexual Tension, Starfleet Academy, mutual ignoring of sexual tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-25 08:48:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22153300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hawke/pseuds/Hawke
Summary: Jim and Bones each find out they are developing soul-marks, and independantly decide toignore them, due to previous complicated history with them.Thankfully, those troubles, and the challenges of Semester One of Starfleet Academy, can be put behind them. One week at the snowfields to relax over Christmas, what could go wrong?tl;dr - Oh no! Its cold! Snow: thrown. Friendship: grown. Soul mark stuff: ignored!
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Leonard "Bones" McCoy
Series: Do You Mind? (A Soul-Mate Academy AU) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1570681
Comments: 36
Kudos: 84





	1. A Dark Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Snow Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before I get into the relevant-to-story rambling notes for this fic, I have a few more personal things I need to share.
> 
> My plan for January was to drive down to Canberra (13ish hour drive, I did it in three days), go to a 11 day camp, stay with my cousin, go to a 4 day camp, stay with my cousin, go to a games convention.
> 
> South of Sydney, I drove through a forest that was so smokey, that visibility was almost non-existent.
> 
> When I arrived in Canberra, air quality was 30X that of what is considered hazardous. We have topped the world in 'worst air quality' for at least two days in the last fortnight.
> 
> Fires have burnt more than Belgium in area.
> 
> The Navy was evacuating people from the coast, as fires closed in.
> 
> Several firefighters have died, and several people trying to defend their homes from fires have died.
> 
> Our PM has been doing nothing except forcing handshakes on people (i wish i were kidding). Our country burns, and our PM puts forward a religious discrimination bill. Our country burns, and the PM supports the opening of more mines, and the usage of 'clean coal'. Our country burns, and it will continue to burn, because no one in power accepts that this is climate change.
> 
> I urge you, if you have spare money, please donate it to New South Wales Rural Fire Service, or Red Cross, or any of the many charities that are working to help us in these trying times.
> 
> My first camp was cut short, the second has been cancelled. I am currently trying to figure out how to get home whilst avoiding fires on the highway (I will fly back for the games convention).
> 
> Not to get scientific on main, but Australia is the canary in this climate change coalmine. Yes, we've had fires before, yes, they've been bad before. But this is unprecedented, and will continue.
> 
> And now, for the fic-related notes that I wrote several weeks ago when I started this fic:
> 
> To make this clear, i live in South East Queensland, an area where the average summer high is 30C (86F), and the average winter low is 9C (48.2F). I have only seen snow on distant mountain tops when i visited England nine years ago. I dont know how snow or extreme cold works. It gets below 20C (68F) and I'm cold. In December, it reached 45C (113F) and everyone just dealt with it.
> 
> So tl;dr, i dont know how snow works.
> 
> Also, from my understanding of the military, youve gotta wear your uniform all the time. Is that true? No idea. But thats what its gonna be for this fic, so fuck it.
> 
> Also, a heeeeeellll of a lot more ... Graphic sexual stuff? Whether there will be actual sex is a #spoiler. Thank god i no longer have to write heterosexual sex. Having to do the Galia/Jim scene in the previous fic was the awkwardist moment of my gay life.
> 
> If you're not interested in reading graphic sexual descriptions, then im sorry you need to not read :(

2256.12.21

Bones and I were still recovering from the intensity of exams and the semester, so we were spending a lot of time in each other's company just existing. At least I got to fully relax, Bones had to be constantly available in case Starfleet medical called. 

I was laying back in my bed reading through _Survival: Tundra and Deserts_ while Bones dozed on his bed, when his comm went off. 

Bones rolled over, muffling his face into his pillow and groaning. 

"Is that mine?"

I looked up towards our desks. It was definitely his PADD lighting up. 

"Yup."

"God'ammit."

He stumbled over to his desk, and I saw his entire demeanour change when he saw whoever was calling. His slumped tiredness straightened up, and he quickly ran his hand through his ruffled hair. 

He sat down carefully at his desk and answered the PADD hesitantly. 

"Hey Jocelyn." 

Damn, it was Bitch McCoy. At least his tone was less lovesick-kicked-puppy than earlier in the term. I could just see the screen of the PADD over Bones' shoulder from where I was on my bed. 

"Hello Leonard," she raised a small package into view of the screen, a parcel in a UPS bag, "What is this?"

No time for small talk I guess.

Bones sighed, "Its a Christmas present Joce. For JoJo."

Jocelyn raised one disbelieving eyebrow, "Really?"

"I wanted her to have something from me, for Christmas."

"Ugh," she snorted, "now you have time for your daughter."

"Joce, please."

"Fine. She's the one who found it on the doorstep and saw your name on the return address, so there's nothing I can do."

Would she really have not given her daughter the present? At least my mother just ignored me and drank herself into oblivion.

"Joce, I was also hoping. Well. I've got the week off for Christmas. And I'm stayin' at the farm with ma. I was hopin' I could drop in and see JoJo."

Jocelyn shook her head, "Impossible. We aren't going to be in Atlanta."

Bones seemed to be waiting for the second half of the sentence, where Bitch McCoy told him where they _would_ be, but it never came. 

"Is there anything else Leonard?"

"Well, can I talk to JoJo on Christmas? Just to give her my best wishes?"

"There isn't any comm reception. No." She glanced over the PADD at something off-screen, "I have to go."

She hung up. 

Where the hell could she be going for one week that didn’t have comm reception? Either a secret military base or the depths of the ocean. She was so lying. 

Bones hung his head, sighing. 

He seemed to have forgotten I was in the room, as he dialled a comm number with a Georgian area code. 

An older woman with Bones' hazel eyes answered. Her face immediately split into a wide grin. 

"Len!"

"Hey mama."

"Oh, it's so good to see you! How's the academy? Have you been eating enough!"

"I'm fine mama. I was actually callin' to ask you somethin'."

"Of course Len."

"I’ve got the week off for Christmas, I was hopin' to come down and spend it at the farm with you. Joce won’t let me see JoJo, but ..."

Mama McCoy's face fell at that. "Sorry darlin', I'd love to have you here. But your pawpaw still hasn’t forgiven you for what happened with David."

Bones swallowed uncomfortably, "And you?" he said, almost a whisper.

"Oh Len. There's nothing to forgive. Not for you anyway. I know how much pain he was in, but I'm still disappointed that he made _you_ do it."

Bones let out a tight breath of relief at that, "I understand mama."

They paused for a moment, just looking at each other, before mama McCoy asked about Bones' classes and they began to speak about Starfleet, Ol' John down the road, and other mundane events in both of their lives. 

  
Not that it was a competition, but apparently Bones was trying to one-up me in the messed-up family Olympics. It was four days until Christmas, and it looked like we were going to be a pair of sad drunks. 

Screw that.

Even with my splurge to buy food to hoard earlier in the semester, I still had a decent chunk of my cadet's stipend. I hired out a car (a shuttle would be quicker and cheaper, but I didn’t want our impromptu holiday to begin with a terrifying shuttle ride) and a cabin at a ski resort east of Sacramento. Both Riverside and Atlanta got snow, but neither allowed for good quality snow-forts or snowball fights. And while Bones didn’t seem to be the kind of guy who went out of his way to snowboard or ski, I was sure he would enjoy a few days filled with enough physical activity that he'd forget his issues for a while. 

Bones had already taken the week off assuming he would be heading back to Georgia, so when he got back from his final pre-holiday shift at Starfleet Medical, I was ready to go with our bags. 

"No time to waste, we've gotta get going." I shoved his packed bag into his hand and ushered him out the door. 

Bones blinked at me, confused. "What?"

"Come on, we need to get going now so we get there by dark."

I just started walking, hoping that Bones' curiosity would overpower his good sense, and he'd follow me. Sure enough, he caught up as I was exiting our dorm building. 

"Where are we going Jim?"

I turned to Bones and gave him a lopsided grin, "We just finished our first semester at Starfleet Academy! Marks may not come out until the 30th, but I'm sure we both passed. We need to celebrate!"

By the grateful look on his face, he saw through the ruse. I was glad he didn’t challenge it though, and just rolled his eyes exasperatingly at me.

"Where are we even going then?"

I grinned, "You'll find out!"

I'd ended up putting Bones' name on the car rental. No amount of Starfleet uniform helped the fact that car rental places charge exorbitant prices for under twenty-fives to hire. He sighed and muttered 'infant' when I explained what I’d done as we walked into the rental store, but he nonetheless signed the PADD and took the keys. 

I dumped our bags in the back, and we got into the car. 

Bones turned it on and looked at me. 

"So, where are we going then?"

I grinned, "Head back over the Golden Gate bridge."

Bones groaned but followed my instruction. 

The view of the bay as we made our way around the northern edge of San Francisco was nice, but it soon devolved into the monotony of highway driving as we made our way through Sacramento. *

We sat in companionable silence as Bones drove, both still too exhausted and drained from the troubles of the last few months. 

Finally, I directed Bones to begin the climb up the Sierra Nevada mountains, and he realised where we were going.

"We're going to a snowfield, aren’t we?"

I grinned, unable to keep a straight face, "No."

"Dammit Jim." He rolled his eyes and turned away, but I could see the trace of a grin on his face. 

The mountains were beautiful, and I took it in as we zig-zagged higher and higher. Snow began to really show itself on the sides of the road, and I was glad that most roads were built to prevent snow build-up and almost eliminate the likelihood of sliding out. I would hate to have been driving this road even a hundred years ago. 

We arrived at the Sierra Attahoe resort four hours after leaving San Francisco, and I leapt out of the car quickly, keen to stretch my legs. 

I was unprepared for the sheet _cold_ that greeted me. 

San Francisco got cold, but this was something else. Whether it was the thinner mountain air, or the sheer volume of snow lying around, or something else, it was an alien sensation. 

I yelped and quickly tucked my hands under my armpits. From inside the car, I could see Bones laughing. 

Oh, was it going to be like that? Okay. 

I walked around the back of the car and opened the boot. Out of sight of Bones, I scooped up a **freezing** handful of snow and rolled it into a ball.

Sticking it behind my back, I moved around to Bones' side of the car and opened the door. 

"Your lodgings, sir," I said in a mock-French tone, bowing slightly. 

He laughed again and stepped out of the car - and I pounced.

I grabbed the back of his shirt, pulled it back, and shoved the snow down the back of his Cadet reds. 

The scream was hilarious, and I quickly dodged backwards as he tried to grab for me. 

"Dammit Jim!"

I ran around to the other side of the car, using it to keep Bones out of arm's reach. 

Bones scooped up a handful of snow and began to circle the car. 

"Come on Jimmy. Just stop for a second."

"Nuh-uh."

I circled with him, staying on the opposite side from Bones. 

Laughing came from behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder to see a group of three young teenagers watching us from behind the waist-high snowbanks separating the carpark from the resort. 

I grinned at them and waved. 

One of them suddenly yelled, "WATCH - "

My collar was pulled backwards, and ice-cold spread down my back. 

Fuck!

Fortunately for me, I was much better at taking down an assailant, even it was just Bones. 

I pivoted and grabbed onto the front of Bones' reds, twisting to throw him into the snowbank.

The snow was looser than I had thought, and he landed on the ground with an audible 'oof' as a metric ton of snow-dusted up to shower us both. 

I recovered quickly and planted my knees on either side of Bones’ stomach and pinned him to the ground with my weight and an arm on his shoulder. With the other hand, scooped up a handful of snow and shoved it at his chest between the buttons of the front of his cadet reds. 

He yelled out, a mixture of laughter and breathy surprise. 

I reached around for more snow, and he began to try and wiggle out of my grip. He was definitely bigger than I was and used his weight to move up until my knees were gripping his thighs. 

I abandoned my search for snow and grabbed his arms to double my efforts in pinning him to the ground, leaning as much of my weight as I could on him. 

A sudden and violent itch in my arm made me take stock of my body, and I realised exactly what position I was in. Fighting always got the blood up, and the last time I'd been with anyone was Galia months ago. Bones wasn't a bad looking guy, and I was currently straddling him, pinning his hands above his head. When I'd leaned forward, I'd unintentionally pushed my dick into his pelvis, and my dick was keen to inform me that no snow had reached it yet, and it was ready for duty. 

I released Bones' hands and jumped up, covering my sudden movement with a grin. 

"We should probably check in and stop messing around."

Bones was flushed from head to toe, almost the colour of the cadet reds we were both wearing. 

I could have sworn I heard a wolf-whistle from the direction of the teenagers, but I ignored it in favour of reaching out a hand to Bones. 

"Truce?"

Bones grinned back at me and grabbed my hand. 

Instead of pulling himself up, he pulled me to the ground and dumped me face-first into the snow. 

I spluttered, snow covering me from head to toe. On the bright side, little Jimmy had retreated. 

I rolled over to glare at Bones, and he reached a hand out to me. 

"Truce."

He helped me up over the continued laughter of the teenagers, and we grabbed our bags from the car. 

"Let’s get inside quickly Bones, it's cold."

"Jee, I wonder why we're particularly cold Jim?"

As we got to the resort entrance, I saw the teenagers in more detail. We seemed to have caught them just as they were heading out to the fields, as two of them had snowboards and one had skis.

I waved at them as I walked past, "Afternoon."

"Afternoon." They chorused, trying to hide their smiles. 

I tried to brush as much of the snow off me as I could before heading inside, but enough had been warmed by my body heat that it was a combination of water and re-frozen ice. 

"Dammit Jim." Bones groaned as he tried to do the same. 

After a few minutes, I decided to give up. They'd be used to visitors tracking melted snow everywhere, it was a ski lodge. 

I stepped up to the front desk and greeted by a smiling woman. "Welcome to Sierra Attahoe ski resort! What was the booking under?"

"McCoy," I responded, no need to advertise my last name. 

She grabbed a pair of key cards and handed them over, "Room 307. I'd say, 'hope you have a fun stay', but I can see you already got started on that." 

It was then that I realised the front desk looked out onto the carpark. She too would have seen Bones and my snow-wrestling. My face flushed red, and I covered it with a smile, "Thanks."

As we headed up to the room, I broke the bad news to Bones.

"I booked this sort-of last minute, and they didn’t have any two-bed rooms left, so we'll have to share." I tried to be as casual as possible as I mentioned it. 

Bones shrugged, "At least it’s probably a softer bed than at the academy."

That was true. 

We threw out bags into the room and headed back downstairs. 

"They hire out snow clothes and skiing gear, we've still got a few hours until sundown. You wanna head out now?"

Bones seemed to have just internalised the fact that we were at a ski resort. "Jim, I've never been skiing before."

I grinned, "Me neither! It'll be fun!"

I ignored the groan of response and dragged Bones towards the ski field. We'd have fun, whether he liked it or not!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Why are there so many highways??? I'm looking at the map, and theres like three dozen highways coming out of San Francisco? What is this? America is weird. And all your highways are called by their numbers? Whats with that? I30E? US101N? W H A T? Here in Australia (or at least, the East Coast of Australia), you get on the Bruce and head up the coast or down the coast.


	2. (not) Keeping (it) Clean

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keep it in your pants Bones!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ;) <3

2256.12.21

Unfortunately, we had arrived too late in the day for the mandatory safety briefing and beginner skiing and snowboarding class, so we couldn't do anything that afternoon. Given that I had been up since four am at the hospital, and then driven for hours, I wasn't too disappointed to be heading into bed. 

Jim made some excuse about 'checking out the bar' while I got changed for bed, and I was thankful to not have to get to sleep while lying in the same bed as him. 

The snow fight had been stress-relieving, but also very arousing. Maybe it was the casual touches that Jim had been giving me for months or maybe it was the way he had unintentionally gyrated into my dick as he pinned my arms to the ground (and boy, was that a hot thing to think about, Jim grinding into me as - )

I groaned, shoving the palms of my hands into my eyes until I saw stars. I would not be thinking about my ?best? friend in a sexual way. I rolled into bed, and thankfully I was too tired to consider any night time activities as I fell asleep. 

2256.12.22

Apparently, Jim was a cuddler. How did I know that? Because he was currently spooning me, his breath whistling over my ear and his body pressed against mine. 

He seemed to be completely asleep, which was good, because my body was _very_ interested in the warmth pressed against it, and the arm thrown over my stomach to hold me close. 

Everywhere he was pressed against me - which was most of my body - lit up with a satisfying warmth that seemed to reverberate from the _not_ -soul mark on my arm to my still-interested-from-last-night dick. 

I let out a moan and then tried to convince myself it was a moan of frustration at my body betraying me and not a moan of ... Something else. 

It took a while to extract myself from Jim's embrace, and I was glad that he'd been out drinking last night. On a normal day, he was an early riser and easily awoken. After a night of drinking though, he slept like the dead. 

The room we were in was obviously more of a budget place than an expensive holiday retreat, but the shower might as well have been the presidents’. Amenities were not high on Starfleet Academy's budget, and the showers in the dorm were adequate at best. 

I locked the door, undressed, and turned on the shower. I had been intending to put it on a bit cooler to try and help with my ... morning problem, but as the cool air washed out from the cold water and over me, I quickly changed my mind. I was going to be cold enough outside today, a warm shower wouldn’t kill me. I could control myself, I wasn't some blushin’ teenager. 

After lathering up, I ran my hands fully over my body, trying to scrub at every last bit of myself. I'd gone through the decon shower at medical yesterday, and it always left me feeling like my skin wasn't quite right. I'd been planning to have a shower in the dorms when Jim had dragged me off to this ski lodge. 

Jim. 

He had dragged me out here, and I had no doubts it was because of the call with Joce. I hadn't realised how badly the conversation would go, otherwise I wouldn't have taken the call in front of him. Well, I still would have taken the call, no way I was potentially missing talking to JoJo. But I would have ... done something. 

I _knew_ that was why we were out here, because Jim had done a similar thing when I last spoke to Joce. Meddling where he didn’t belong. I tried to summon anger over his pernicious invasion of my privacy and life, but I couldn’t. He was a good man, a good friend, who cared. 

The warmth in my arm echoed through my body as I considered Jim, and I realised that I had gotten stuck washing myself and was now slowly rubbing at the inside of my thighs, feeling the soap move through the sensitive hairs near my pelvis. 

The door was locked, fuck it. Stress relief wouldn't be a bad thing.

I moved my right hand closer and froze. No. My right arm, that was the one with the blind man, with the soul mark of - 

I grabbed at the soap holder in the shower with my right hand, holding myself up. The last thing I needed was 'Cause of Death: Fell while masturbating in the shower'.

I slid my left hand down my chest, rubbing at my sensitive nipples, my gasping diaphragm, the trail of hair pointing down, and gently curled my fingers around my dick. 

The warmth in my growing soul-mark surged into a growing warmth in my dick, and I couldn’t hold back a gasp. 

Soapy slick, I gently moved my hand up and down my dick. 

I closed my eyes against the warmth of the water, calling images up in my mind. A nice green-eyed brunette wrapping her hand around my dick, whispering in my ear seductively before peppering kisses on my body as she descended down. 

Holding my hands behind my back, licking at the head of my dick as she jerked off the rest of it. 

Smiling up at me, a cocky grin on her face as the water ran over her.

The water washing away the dark of her hair, lightening it to a deep blond. 

The cocky grin spreading and morphing her features, her mouth closing over the head of the dick, then descending down down down until she had taken it to the root. 

Electric blue eyes looked up at me, and even with my dick stretching her mouth, she still managed to look in charge.

He. He managed to still look in charge. 

Jim stared up at me, a look on his face that told me exactly who was calling the shots, regardless of who was on his knees and who was getting his dick sucked. 

God, he was beautiful. 

I didn't have time to smother the half-groan, half-shout as I came, it happened too suddenly. 

The warmth buzzed through me, and the aftershocks thrummed again and again. I slowly slid down the side of the shower, basking in the echoes of pleasure running through me. 

As the pleasure eventually faded and my brain kicked back into gear, I groaned for an entirely different reason. 

Dammit. Jacking off to a friend was _not_ a good thing. Even it had been unintentional. But it was fine, totally fine. I was just tired from a long semester, and I'd been spending so much time with him that it was normal to have him invade my thoughts as well. 

Yup. Totally normal. 

I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind, got up, and finished my shower. 

Jim was still asleep when I walked out into the room, moaning in his sleep. Jesus, that kid was never quiet. 

I scrawled a note and left it next to the bed, telling Jim I would meet him downstairs, and headed to breakfast. 

Either Starfleet Academy had dramatically lowered my standards, or the food here was damn good. Real Georgian peaches, crispy bacon, strawberry yoghurt, it was good stuff. Although I did notice the distinct lack of variety I was accustomed to, it was all terran food. 

I sat down to eat and was halfway through my bacon when someone dropped into the seat next to me. I expected Jim but was instead greeted by one of the teenagers from yesterday, a dark-haired and dark-skinned boy. 

"Where’s your boyfriend?" He asked. 

"Boyfriend?" I asked, choking a bit. 

One of the other teens sat down, a girl with tanned skin and electric green hair (dyed? Or did she have some xeno-heritage?), "Yeah, that guy you were wrestling yesterday." 

"He's not - we're not. He's a friend." I stammered, feeling my face go red. Dammit. 

The teens rolled their eyes in unison.

"Sure." the girl said. 

"Of course." the boy continued. 

Damned kids. 

I was saved by a middle-aged white woman walking over to the table, "Alyssa! Domenic! Leave that poor officer alone!" 

Officer? I guess we were far enough out of San Francisco that people wouldn’t know the difference between a Cadet uniform and a normal Starfleet uniform. 

I looked up at her and smiled, "It's fine ma'am, they’re just bein' friendly."

"Friendly or not, they shouldn't be bothering you, sir." She herded the two teens over to a table with the third teen - a boy with features similar to Sulu, and a darker-skinned man who was likely the father of their very multicultural family. 

JoJo would be that old one day, annoying the hell outa her mother. 

I felt the smile fall from my face. Joce would be dragging her back to a table that didn’t have JoJo's father at it though. 

Damn. 

I ate the rest of my meal in silence, trying to tune out the "Eat your tomatoes, they're healthy" from the father and "listen to your father, he's right" from the mother. 

JoJo loved eating tomatoes, she'd eaten a whole punnet of cherry tomatoes when she was four, and then thrown them up five minutes later from all of the acids. 

"What’s making you smile?" Jim asked as he sat down next to me. 

I turned to him, and my reply died on my lips as I saw his plate piled two inches high with a dozen rashers of bacon, slathered in ... Maple syrup?

"Dammit Jim! Are you trying to give yourself a coronary?"

He grinned at me and shoved one of the pieces of bacon into his mouth. 

"Noph, itsh jusht really yumphy."

Damn kid. I focused on eating the rest of my one(!) piece of bacon and my yoghurt. 

I ignored the laughter from the teens' table, and the reprimand from their mother. 

After we finished eating, Jim managing not to choke himself despite shovelling plenty of food down his throat, we checked out some of the rental gear and waited for the safety briefing. 

The staff member running the safety briefing introduced herself as Maribelle, and went over a bunch of safety precautions - no flips on the slopes until we've done the advanced course, once you drink you can’t go on the slopes until the next day, keep distance between you and the person in front, stick to the beginner course until we're more confident, take an emergency buzzer if we go out alone in case something happens. All things that made sense. I kept poking Jim to make sure he was paying attention, as he was staring out at the fields as Maribelle spoke. Finally, we got to the end of the safety briefing and were able to start on the fields. 

"So, do you guys want to try snowboarding or skiing?"

"Snowboarding!" Jim jumped in, "It's way cooler!"

"Okay," Maribelle said through a laugh, "And you, sir?"

"Which one is easier?"

She shrugged, "Depends what you've done before. If you can skateboard, snowboarding is easier, but if you've skated, then skiing is easier."

I had ice-skated a lot as a kid, mostly playing ice-hockey down at the local rink. "Skiing thank you."

"Of course."

She gave us our gear and gave us a fifteen-minute walkthrough on how to use skis and a snowboard. 

"If you need any more help, we run full beginners courses for $180 per person per hour or $300 for two people". 

I saw the look on Jim's face. "We'll be fine, thank you." 

Jim begged off to the toilet, and I began to make my way slowly to the beginners’ area of the resort, where there was a small hill and a wide flat area to practice on.

Either Maribelle had been lying about it being easier to ski if you'd done skating, or I was more out of practice than I thought. 

I was wobbling along, trying to propel myself slowly enough that I didn't fall over, when my left foot began to slip forward. I tried to shove the stupid ski stick thing into the ground to keep me from slipping, but it didn’t help. I was at the point of balance where I was about to fall flat on my ass when a set of arms appeared on either side of me. To my left, the young teenage girl - Alyssa? - had grabbed my arm to steady me, on my right, the brother with Korean features had grabbed my other arm. They were both balancing perfectly on their snowboards. 

"You alright sir?" Alyssa asked, trying to hide a smile. 

"Peachy," I grumbled back, righting myself with their help. I sighed, there was no need to take out my frustration on them when they'd been so helpful. "Thank you. And don't worry about this sir business, the name's McCoy."

"We're happy to help, sir," the boy said, "I'm Kalin, and this is Alyssa. Dominic forgot his gloves, so we're waiting for him." 

I revised my age estimation of the teens after he spoke. I had thought them all around the fifteen-year-old mark after speaking to Alyssa and Dominic earlier in the day, but Kalin was definitely the youngest of them, his voice hadn't quite dropped yet. 

"Good thing you were here, otherwise I would've gone a-" ss over tits. In uniform, civil language "-ah-onto the ground."

The look the teens gave me made it clear that both of them guessed what I had been going to say. After a moment, Dominic appeared, deep in conversation with Jim. 

"There’s my brother and sister. Thanks sir!"

"No problem Dom! Just let me know if there’s anything else I can help with."

The three teens bid us goodbye and moved to the snowfields a lot faster than Jim and I did. 

"What did you help him with?" I asked, shuffling my feet slowly lest I have another half-falling accident.

"Hmm? Oh Dominic. He couldn't find his gloves, it turns out he'd dropped them under the stairs. I helped him grab them."

Of course he did. I ignored the warmth that blossomed in my chest. Jim was way too good of a person. 

We got to the small 'kiddies first skiing' hill and spent the next few hours skiing and snowboarding. To my annoyance, Jim grasped the basics of snowboarding well before I managed to ski without shuffling like an idiot. I wasn't surprised or anything, he was definitely more physically adept than I was, but I was still annoyed. 

"Lunchtime?" Jim called out as he came down the hill for the hundredth time, sailing past me as his confidence and newfound skill on included not falling off his snowboard, and not stopping his snowboard. 

I shuffled over to where he had eventually slowed to a stop, "Sure."

We had lunch and headed back out onto the beginner hill for another few hours. By the time we came back in at dusk, I wasn’t sure whether I never wanted to get on a pair of skis ever again, or if I wanted to brave the night hill so I could keep working on this newfound skill. It was frustrating as hell, but I was starting to get the hang of it. 

When I stood up from dinner, I decided the former. My legs ached at me from the unfamiliar position I’d had them in all day, and my back ached from the slightly-bent posture I’d assumed to stop myself from falling on my ass. 

"Ugh." I groaned.

Jim grinned at me, "What’s wrong old man?"

I rolled my eyes, "Dammit Jim. I'm a doctor, not a skier. My everything hurts."

Jim grabbed my arm and dragged me over to the bar, "I know exactly what will fix that," he turned to the bartender, "Two doubles."

We sat at the bar for another half an hour, until the gentle buzz at the back of my mind overruled the ache in my body. 

I stood up, ready to declare myself done and ready for bed, when a young man came over to speak to Jim. 

"Up for another game?"

Jim grinned sloppily, he'd drunk as much as I had, "Sure."

Game? I was drunk enough to watch some sort of game. 

I ordered another two fingers of bourbon and followed Jim and the man over to the pool table in the corner of the bar.

"Whatcha doin Jim?"

"Thissis Jackson. We played pool las’ night an' I beat him. Jus’ like I'm gonna beat him again t'night."

I nodded for a moment. This would be fun to watch. Either Jim got his ass handed to him because he was too drunk to play, or I got to watch my friend win at pool while smashed. Win-win. 

I sat down at a nearby table and watched as the pool table was set up, and as Jim leaned over the pool table to break, I realised there was another -win on the end of that.

To play pool, one often needed to lean over the table. As luck would have it, Jim seemed to need to lean over the part of the table that pointed his tight ass directly towards me. 

I apparently was not drunk enough that my penile tumescence reaction had been subdued. Between Jim bending over the table and demonstrating his dexterity despite his drunkenness, my body was _very_ interested. 

Thankful that the table I was sitting at hid my crotch from view, I tried to think unsexy thoughts as Jim wrapped up his slaughter of the other man by twisting his body into a seemingly impossible position to sink the 8-ball. Honestly, with flexibility like that, he could probably suck his own – 

Unsexy thoughts. Un. Sexy. Thoughts. 

It somewhat worked, and I was ready to stumble upstairs as Jim shook hands and promised another game tomorrow night. 

"You’re good at pool," I muttered as we made our way slowly to our room. 

"Yup! It's how I made most of my money in Riverside, hustling pool."

We continued moving upstairs, and I was focussed enough on putting one foot above the other without falling over that I managed to get rid of my ... Little problem. 

Unfortunately, I forgot that we were sharing a bed. Great. 

We both got changed into our pyjamas, turned out the lights, and laid on the bed silently. 

After a few minutes of lying down in the darkness, Jim spoke up, "Lights, on."

As the lights flickered on, he turned to me, "I can’t sleep."

"Then turn off the lights and close your eyes."

"We should play a game Bones. We should play truth and dare! It'll be fun!"

Jim reached under the bed and grabbed his PADD. "Galia showed me this program that generates truth questions and dares so you don’t have to come up with them yourself."

"Ugh fine. What’s the worst that could happen."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooft, thats was a chapter. Definitly nervous about posting more of the sexy stuff, hope I did well. :P   
> This fic is already 90% written, but its probs only gonna be 12k-15k words. Howevermuch I'm loving this fic, I cannot wait to get it done and write more on the next one, back at the academy. 
> 
> Back home now, away from the worst of the fires, so thats good. Definitly easier to breathe in Brisbane.
> 
> ALSO! If anyone can guess the naming reasons/source behind the fic titles (So far: Love is Blind and My Hands are Cold), I will give you ... something! An NPC with your choice of name? Something!


	3. Truth or Dare?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Truth or Dare! Adventures! Jim has a fun dream!
> 
> 90% a continuation of the last chapter, but from Jim's perspective.

2256.12.22

I blamed the drinks I'd had at the bar for the ... Interesting dreams I had on the first night at the resort. 

First, I’d been captain of the USS _Farragut_. Bones was my CMO (obviously) and had been attacked by a slime creature that had coated him in a deadly acid. The only way to save him was to give him a big hug of course! Unfortunately, I was allergic to the slime and became very itchy. But I had to hug him, no one else wanted to go near the cantankerous doctor. 

Then, the dream changed. I was hugging him tightly, but then we went into the decon shower to get the slime off. We were both in the same shower because the other one was out of order, obviously. And we were naked so the shower would be more effective, obviously. And we were running our hands over each other, to clean the slime off effectively, obviously. 

And then I realised there was some slime caught in Bones' chest hair. The best way to get it off was with my mouth, and I began to plant kisses on his chest, working my way down his body until I was kneeling at Bones' feet. 

And when I got there, I realised that Bones' perfect dick was rock hard. Well as they said, ‘while I was down there’. 

Obviously. 

I wrapped my lips around his dick, running my tongue over the slit. It had already been semi-hard, but I coaxed it into full hardness with my mouth and by running my hand up and down his shaft. I felt myself harden as I serviced Bones and basked in the pleasure. 

I slowly slid my mouth down his dick, sliding it into my throat and past the gag reflex that I'd trained out of myself years ago. 

Bones ran his hand through my hair, grabbing at my head and moaning. 

"God Jim, you're so beautiful."

I revelled in the praise, feeling it travel down the length of my body. In this position, the itching that accompanied Bones’ touch and echoed in my arm felt like a rising tension rather than a painful scratching sensation. 

I pushed my head down as far as it would go, spasming my throat around the head of Bones' dick with a deep-throated moan. 

He came with a shout, and I grabbed at my dick and followed with a few sharp tugs. 

My mind folded into darkness, but the darkness of a dream instead of the darkness of post-coital bliss. 

A dream, that was fine. 

And then I’d woken up to an empty bed. 

And a wetness in my boxers. 

Oh Jesus. It had certainly been a dream, but I had no idea when the dream had happened. All I could hope was that Bones hadn't noticed. 

I grabbed a quick shower and headed downstairs for breakfast. 

The rest of the day was fun. Snowboarding was something I’d never done before, but it wasn't that different from skateboarding. I'd seen the three teenagers sailing past on one of the more difficult hills, and I was mildly jealous that I couldn’t join them. After lunch, I considered moving to the easiest of the real ski hills, I was confident I could take it on without injuring myself, even if I couldn’t stop properly yet. 

But Bones was nowhere near ready to move on. And there was no way I was leaving him. 

I was not proud of my behaviour at the pool table. I had maybe had a few too many drinks, and the echoes of this morning’s dream was still playing in my mind. I made sure to point my ass in Bones' direction at every chance I could as I aimed the balls into the pockets.   
  
Especially at the end, as I sunk the 8-ball, I twisted as much as my flexible body would allow. Fighting and fucking both required a lithe body, so I kept mine in shape. And if I showed it off to Bones? 

I regretted it the second we laid down in the same bed. I wasn’t sure if the sexual tension was all in my head, but there was no way I was sleeping. 

After aggeeeesss of lying down in the darkness, I couldn't take it, "Lights, on."

As the lights flickered on, I turned to Bones, "I can’t sleep."

"Then turn off the lights and close your eyes." He grumbled back.

"We should play a game Bones." I tried to think of something that would end in enough alcohol that I’d pass out, "We should play truth or dare! It'll be fun!"

I reached under the bed and grabbed my PADD. "Galia showed me this program that generates truth questions and dares so you don’t have to come up with them yourself."

"Ugh fine. What’s the worst that could happen."

Bones rolled over until he could reach out of the bed and began to rifle through his bag. 

"What are you looking for?"

"Well, we need the alcohol for the shots."

I winked at Bones, "Planning on saying no to a lot of things?"

He scoffed, "If it’s a program Galia recommended, yes."

I reached down into my bag and pulled out Bones' bourbon, "Looking for this?"

Bones rolled back over to his original position. 

"Hey! That’s mine."

I grinned, "I didn’t want to risk you drinking it without me."

It was a new one from when I'd had my panic attack a few weeks ago, and I cracked the bottle as we sat up in the bed. 

"Alright, let’s get going. Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

I clicked the PADD. 

**Have you ever farted in a turbolift?**

Bones snorted at that, "Sure, your turn."

I considered for a moment. 

"Dare."

**Eat a raw egg.**

I stood up, and Bones grabbed at my sleeve to pull me back onto the bed. 

"Nuh-uh. You're not doin' anythin' that involves food. Click it again."

Fun ruiner. 

**Remove your socks with your teeth.**

I grinned, this was easy. 

This was not easy.   
  
I think the idea was to test the daree’s flexibility, which wasn’t my problem. I was drunker than I thought, and it was impossible to convince my teeth to bite the fabric of my sock tight enough to pull it down my foot. After a few minutes of trying, I gave up. 

"Dammit." I took a swig of the bourbon. 

Several truths, several dares, and half a bottle of bourbon later (we had mostly given up on drinking when we didn’t want to tell the truth, or if we couldn’t do the dare. Mostly, we were taking a swig every time it was our turn), we were both very drunk. 

"Uhhhh. Truth." Bones slurred, slumped against the bedhead.

I pressed the button on the PADD. 

**"What’s one thing you wish people knew about your job."** the PADD read out. 

Bones stared at me for a moment, before his eyes slid out of focus and ended somewhere behind me, "Uhhhh. Uhhhh. Uhhhhhh. Oh, I know. Ya know the symb'l on the am'blances, the staff with the snakes."

I nodded, then stopped as my head rang. 

"They picked it because it’s the Greek medical thingy. BUT! Iss not! It’s the wrong one! They picked the d'ble snek one, which'is the wrong god! They picked the cadoo- caduu- cadooc- the wrong one. The real healing stick is the single snake'n'stick. It’s the staff of as'ee'pius."

I laughed, "arse-we-pee-us?"

Bones scowled, or at least he tried to. His facial muscles seemed unwilling to co-operate. 

"As-clee-pee-us. Shuddup."

I laughed, and then I realised I couldn't stop. After a moment, Bones joined in. 

He poked me in the shoulder, "Do the nex' one."

I thought for a moment. "Dare," and pressed the button on the PADD.

**"Kiss the cutest person in the room**

I giggled, "I can’t kiss myself!"

Bones rolled his eyes, and then pulled a face that showed he had made himself feel sick from the eye roll. Hahaha. 

"Sure kid."

I turned to look Bones in the eye and slowly moved forward, giving him the chance to back out of it if he wanted. I'd never gotten this close to Bones, and I could see the individual flickers of green in his hazel eyes and the stubble that had started to grow since he'd shaved before his shift at Starfleet Medical. My lips brushed against his for a moment - 

And he yelped, leaping backwards. I'd left the bourbon laying between us on the bed, and it had slipped as I moved, tipping slightly into Bones' lap. 

"I thin' we've had enough've this game now Jim." He said, putting the bourbon on the side table. 

"Yeah alr'ite." I slurred back, suddenly tired. I hadn't felt the adrenaline rise up in me as I'd been leaning towards Bones, but I certainly felt as it drained away. 

Bones began to rummage through his bag to find a change of pants and retreated to the bathroom to clean himself off. 

"G'night 'ones."

"Night Jim."

  
2256.12.23

Thankfully, I was one hundred percent too drunk to dream, or at least to remember my dreams. 

And thankfully, too drunk for any ... Nocturnal problems. Although, I had apparently been awake enough to gravitate towards the warmest thing in the bed. I was spooning Bones as tightly as I could, basking in the warmth (and comforting itch) that Bones put out. 

I slowly extracted myself, trying not to wake him up.

He was awake when I returned from the head, staring bleary-eyed at the clock. 

"Mornin' Bones."

"Ugh." He grunted back at me.

I threw myself on the bed dramatically. "Ready for a fun day of snow?"

He rolled over, smothering the pillow over his ears, "ugh."

I poked him in the shoulder, "Don’t tell me you’re regretting the night of drinking fun we had last night?" 

"I don't even remember half of last night." He replied, voice muffled in the bed.

"Well then, you've had a good night then. Come on! The snow awaits!" I bounced on the bed, trying to get Bones up. There was no way I was letting him lay in bed and waste away the day. It was only - I checked the clock - ooft, 0730. 

Well, he was awake, we might as well get up and do stuff. 

Bones eventually rolled out of bed and we got changed and headed to the fields after a stop at breakfast and the gear check. 

Despite the gentle throb in the back of my head, and Bones' clear hangover, we did pretty well on the fields. My body had a vague ache from the different muscle groups I had used yesterday when snowboarding, but it wasn’t enough to stop me from pushing myself today. I spent the first hour with Bones, working through the basics with him. Eventually, he scowled at me.   
  
“Go to the next hill Jim. I can see you’re doin’ better than me at this. Don’t let me ruin your fun.”  
  
Hey look! A kindness behind the scowl. I wished Bones good luck, and moved onto the first proper hill. 

I enjoyed the freedom of sailing down the hill, getting a bit of lift as I crested the ridges, and the sensation of success as I slalomed around the flags on the course. It was exhilarating, and I enjoyed being able to focus on my physical reactions and leave the heavy thinking to the back of my mind.

Eventually, my stomach started to comment that it might be time for lunch, and I made my way back to the beginners’ hill in time to see Bones ski down it.

I pulled off my glove and wolf-whistled (Chris taught me the importance of a good wolf-whistle at the bar in Riverside) as he successfully made it down the small slope - no wobbling, no falling, no uncontrolled speeding up or sudden stopping. He'd done well!

Bones turned towards me, using the last of his momentum to stop a few metres in front of me. 

I took a few steps towards him and grabbed him in a big hug. 

"Good job Bones!"

Bones smiling was rare, but I saw the corner of one as I stepped back. Ha! He wasn't always an angry bastard!

"Yeah, I didn't fall over an' break my damned neck." He tried to grumble, but the corners of his mouth were still up ticked. 

I opened my mouth to reply when a loud WHOOP echoed through the mountains. 

My whole body tensed, and I grabbed Bones’ arm, ready to drag him out of any danger. 

The WHOOP sounded a second time before a voice came over a set of speakers.

"EVACUATE THE SLOPES IMMEDIATELY. ALL INDIVIDUALS TO MAKE THEIR WAY TO THE MAIN LODGE IMMEDIATELY. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. FOLLOW STAFF DIRECTIONS AT ALL TIMES. EVACUATE THE SLOPES IMMEDIATELY. ALL INDIVIDUALS TO MAKE THEIR WAY TO THE MAIN LODGE IMMEDIATELY. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. FOLLOW STAFF DIRECTIONS AT ALL TIMES."

The WHOOP sounded twice again before the message repeated. 

I felt my heart slow down, it was just an evacuation siren. There was probably a storm coming or something. It was fine. 

"You alright Jim?"

I realised I was gripping Bones' arm a bit harder than necessary and let go suddenly. 

"Fine. We should head inside."

Bones nodded, and we made our way back into the lodge. 

By the time we checked our snow gear, skis and snowboard, there was a large crowd gathered in the main hall of the lodge. I spotted the teens and moved towards them. 

"Have they said what's happening?" I asked Dom. 

He shook his head, "Not yet, just told everyone to keep calm, and that they're gonna do a headcount soon."

I nodded. 

"Really Dominic! Annoying the nice officers again?" The teen's mum scolded her son when she realised he was talking to us. 

"It's fine ma'am," I responded. 

She shook her head, "He told me how you helped him find his gloves. Thank you very much. I'm Candice by the way, and that's my husband Casey. You've already met my three troublemakers." She glared at the three teens, but I could see the kindness in the look. 

"I'm Jim, and this is Bones."

Candice raised an eyebrow, "Bones?"

"Actu - "

I cut Bones off before he could speak, "Yeah, he's the best Doctor in Starfleet."

"Wel - "

"Can I have everyone's attention please!"

A resort staff member - Jesslyn, if her name tag was to be believed - was standing at the front of the hall with a megaphone. 

The room quieted down from the din of everyone talking in their own little conversations, and everyone turned to look at her. 

"Apologies for the evacuation. We all appreciate your quick and calm movement into the resort. We have received notice that a dangerous storm has started up in the east. The slopes have been shut down as a precautionary measure, and they will be shut until either the storm passes over, or we can confirm it will miss us. It should be gone by Boxing Day, but we will keep you updated."

She paused for a moment, then pointed to a group of resort workers who were standing at the edge of the hall near the doors leading to the bar, rec room and dining hall. 

"If everyone could please get their names ticked off the lists so we can ensure we have everyone inside, the rec room facilities will be open to all and the bar will remain open for the duration of the storm. Thank you for your co-operation as we work to keep everyone safe, and please speak to any of our staff if you have any questions, or if there’s anything we can do to make your stay here more enjoyable."

People began to speak again, some grumbling about the closure and some hoping that the bar would do free drinks. 

Kalin crossed his arms angrily, a pout on his face, "I was going to make a snowman!"

Alyssa put her arm around his shoulder, "Chill it bro, we'll still be able to make a snowman later."

"How about you kids go get your names ticked off, and see if you can play in the VR sets in the rec room?" Casey suggested.

Kalin's eyes lit up at that, and the three teens raced to the side of the hall, ducking between people with no regard for personal space or accidental elbows to the face. Kids.

"They seem like a handful." Bones commented, a note of wistfulness to his voice. 

Ah. Joanna. Of course. 

Candice grasped hands with her husband, leaning into him as we waited more sedately for people to check through the headcount. 

"They certainly are. But they're the best kids." She said. 

"Wouldn't trade them for the world." Casey agreed.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> Six chapters in this part, I will update every four days unless Canberra catches fire.


End file.
